That's what I was thinking too. It would clearly be against the spirit of the rule. The runner changed course, but wasn't obstructed. No to mention no one would have seen her change course that far away, so no one would ever question it.
Obstruction in college (or any other rule set for that matter)?
- Thread starter obbay
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obbay
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Sparky Guy-thanks for the photo-that illustrates my question EXACTLY!
I get that it is not illegal to set up blocking a base, even though you may run the risk of being called for obstruction on a close play. maybe the odds of getting that call against you are a longer shot than the odds of getting the out, so it's worth whatever risk there may be?
So when the runner is sliding in to a base and any part of the defenders body is keeping them from touching the base before the defender has the ball in their glove (ie the runner beats the throw, whether force play or not) and the runner is then tagged, the runner would be safe because :
a) the defender didn't have the ball in their possession before the runner arrived
and
b) the defender interfered with or Obstructed the baserunner from reaching the base.
correct?
I get that it is not illegal to set up blocking a base, even though you may run the risk of being called for obstruction on a close play. maybe the odds of getting that call against you are a longer shot than the odds of getting the out, so it's worth whatever risk there may be?
So when the runner is sliding in to a base and any part of the defenders body is keeping them from touching the base before the defender has the ball in their glove (ie the runner beats the throw, whether force play or not) and the runner is then tagged, the runner would be safe because :
a) the defender didn't have the ball in their possession before the runner arrived
and
b) the defender interfered with or Obstructed the baserunner from reaching the base.
correct?
- Sep 29, 2014
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If you slide into any fielder that is positioned such that you are OBSTRUCTED from reaching the base and they do NOT have the ball that should be ruled obstruction.
The still picture is always hard to judge but looks like the catcher will be in possession of the ball well before the runner so since they DO have the ball there can't be obstruction; at least nothing that would ever get called.
These thing are almost always you have to be there type things but i am still interested in [MENTION=426]Comp[/MENTION] answer to the question: given the still picture and the catcher drops the ball right in front of her then picks it up and tags the runner because the runner could not get to the base since the catcher was there...my assumption is that it would be obstruction because the catcher never POSSESSED the ball before before the runner reached what would have been the plate barring the catchers obstruction
The still picture is always hard to judge but looks like the catcher will be in possession of the ball well before the runner so since they DO have the ball there can't be obstruction; at least nothing that would ever get called.
These thing are almost always you have to be there type things but i am still interested in [MENTION=426]Comp[/MENTION] answer to the question: given the still picture and the catcher drops the ball right in front of her then picks it up and tags the runner because the runner could not get to the base since the catcher was there...my assumption is that it would be obstruction because the catcher never POSSESSED the ball before before the runner reached what would have been the plate barring the catchers obstruction
- Sep 29, 2014
- 2,421
- 113
my bad thanks for the response 
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